July 31, 2025 • 50 mins
Join hosts Tim Montague and John Weaver for another episode of Clean Power Hour Live, bringing you the latest developments in wind, solar, and battery storage. In this episode, the hosts dive into the complex implications of policy changes on clean energy deployment, showcase impressive solar installations, discuss the critical role of battery storage in grid stability, and explore global trends in renewable energy adoption. From curtailment reduction in California to electric vehicle adoption in Norway, this episode covers the full spectrum of clean energy developments shaping our industry.
Episode Highlights
- Bloomberg New Energy Finance projects US clean energy installs will plunge 41% after 2027, though installations are expected to remain strong through 2027 with 53+ gigawatts of solar capacity planned for 2025. (Bloomberg/BNF)
- Global grid-scale battery storage deployment increased over 50% in the first half of 2025 (Benchmark)
- New York State releases ambitious plan targeting 35 gigawatts of PV and 9.4 gigawatts of battery storage by 2040 (PV tech)
- US Customs agency seized 146 kilograms of methamphetamine hidden inside unusually thick solar panels. (PV Magazine - Emiliano Bellini)
- Ameren Missouri submits rate increase requests ranging from 29% to 39%, highlighting how rising electricity costs will make solar economics more attractive for consumers. (Link)
- California solar curtailment decreased 12% despite 18% more solar capacity installed. (PV Magazine - John Weaver)
The hosts emphasize that energy professionals should focus on battery storage integration and diversification strategies to navigate the changing policy landscape while capitalizing on the continued growth in clean energy deployment through 2027.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Tim Montague (00:00):
Tim, welcome to the Clean Power Hour live
(00:03):
bringing you the latest in wind,solar and battery storage news.
I'm Tim Montague. Check out allof our content at clean power
hour.com Give us a rating andreview. Check out my new book.
Go to the Book link on cleanpower hour.com and welcome to
the show. John Weaver,commercial show. Commercial
solar guy and my co host,welcome
John Weaver (00:23):
commercial.
Shoulder guy, yeah, shoulder.
Tim Montague (00:27):
Today it's shoulder. I have trouble talking
John Weaver (00:30):
big words, big words you say probably 1000
times a day. It's probablystressful to say it too many
more times I see you. Tim, uh,glad to, glad to talk with you
again. Sorry missed you onFriday at a company event. So
we're we got together. One ofour sales guys visited Boston,
and the team took a summerFriday. Is the term I hear, we
(00:51):
socialize, and hung out. Sothat's awesome. Bringing you
some news this week.
Tim Montague (00:55):
Yes, that is awesome. It's important to take
time out and take care of oneanother. The industry runs on
people. Sometimes we forgetthis. It's not just about
deploying technology. It'sactually people that matter
most, and we're trying to createa safer, healthier future for
humanity. If anyone asks you whywe want to do the energy
(01:17):
transition, like, why on earthshould we do this. It's about
the future of humanity. Really,the earth is going to be fine,
totally fine, with or withoutus. It's a question of, will we
survive, and under whatcondition that's gonna be a
question that's the mainmotivation for what, why I get
(01:39):
up in the morning and go to workis trying to create a safer
future for humanity. So let'sget into the news. There's
there's good news, there's badnews, there's weird news. Of
course, in 2025 there's lots ofweird news, but you found a you
found a story. Trump's law tocut us clean energy installs 41%
(02:04):
I would, I would put this in thebad news category, but that's
life in 2025 right? John,
John Weaver (02:10):
yes, yes. And, and this is a complex story, like
all everything we're dealingwith these days. No, it says
clean energy installs. So thisis a lot of things and but
there's also a shorter termwindow that's still good for us
as people who are working day today. So first off, at the
highest level, Bloomberg islooking at where they think the
(02:35):
solar industry will go. Butnotice this says, right here,
we'll plunge 41% after 2027 sowe're still in 25 Tim, we still
got some work to do for a coupleyears. And and here's the chart.
And this is clean energy. Andbefore we finish, I'm gonna talk
about solar, because Tim, that'swhat you and I do. But this is
(02:57):
everything. So in 25 we'reexpecting 72 gigawatts, AC of
clean energy capacity to bedeployed. That's going to be
energy storage, that's going tobe wind and solar. And 26 we're
expecting 85 gigawatts. 2781this is all coming from
(03:19):
Bloomberg, so these are numbersstill going up over the next
couple of years.
Tim Montague (03:23):
Yeah, because the ITC doesn't go off the cliff
until the end of 27 forcommercial, right,
John Weaver (03:29):
correct, correct.
And I don't know if youremember, but 2016 we had a
massive run up, because the ITCwas going to end and so, so So
what's going to happen overthese next three years, two and
a half years from today, maybesomething of that nature. So
that's kind of positive. Ish,yeah. And so that's, you know,
that's, that's it. So that'swhat we're working on now. Now,
(03:53):
Tim, I don't want to jump to thedocument, but would you do me a
favor and read what I have fromJenny Chase, that's actually on
the document that you can seefor this article How much DC
capacity of solar she suggestson the document that I pasted
there, right above the link, sothat we can compare.
Tim Montague (04:15):
Us clean energy installs 41% BNF says us solar
forecasts megawatt DC, totals,2025 2627 base case, fioc,
basically impossible to meet.
53.1 gigawatts, 61.1 59.8 32.3 Idon't quite understand, but
John Weaver (04:40):
All right, so let's go over it and I can so first,
5362 and then back to 50. Thisis with and so this, I'm going
to say, is really positive.
We're expecting an expansion ofsolar, 5362 and back to 50 for
the next three. Years if fioc,foreign entity of concern is a
(05:02):
big challenge, if it turns outthat the Trump administration is
going to attack everything thathas any association with China,
and we have to really mess upour supply chains, yeah, those
are the numbers that she's thatBNF, Bloomberg, New Energy
Finance, BNF is accepting 5360backed it into the 50s now with
(05:26):
fioc and so read the rest of itwith fioc being manageable. What
kind of capacities does sheproject? That's the second half
of that little column of thatrow,
Tim Montague (05:45):
5361, 50, well, 60 and 32
John Weaver (05:53):
and that's with the fioc manageable, or is that the
first one? Let's see. Wow. Sothen with Oh, so it's similar,
ish, so a little bit all else.
Maybe that's just the Fiatnumber. So, so, so what this is,
is that in the next two and ahalf years, we're going to
deploy a lot of solar, we'regoing to set a record, maybe
this year, with 53 gigs, becauselast year we were like 49.9
(06:14):
Yeah. And then next year, we'regoing to set another record,
maybe over 60 gigs, and thenwe're going to have another 50
gig plus year in 27 that's ifthe Fiat stuff is really hard,
it might ease a little we mighthave a little bit cheaper
hardware. We might get a littlemore installed. But with the
negative and the positive hereis after the next two and a half
(06:36):
years, we all got a lot of workto do, and we need to pound and
get through things as fast as wecan. And then, what the heck's
going to happen in 28 I don'tknow. Maybe we're going to have,
you know, it says 32 gigawattsof solar. That's still a big
number. I mean, 32 gigs is agreat number, but it's going to
be less dispersed. It's going tobe heavy in the commercial
space. And and 2829 30 that'swhen we're going to start seeing
(06:59):
problems in the industry, size,capacity, maybe people getting
fired. And so that's, you know,we got to push hard. Well, two
years we're already seeingpeople get fired. Tim,
Tim Montague (07:12):
yeah, we are already seeing layoffs, just to
be honest, right? The layoffsare happening, and companies
have to be conservative aboutthe forecast. It's, it's hard to
know what the true impact offioc is going to be, you know.
And at its core, you know, theproblem with fioc is that China
is, is, is one of these foreignentities. They're the main maker
(07:35):
of, for example, battery cells.
Our battery cells on the fioclist, I think, I think they are,
it's
John Weaver (07:44):
IP, it's not even cells. I don't even think they
talk about hardware. They talkabout IP, yeah, so if the cell
can be made in Ohio, but if it'sChinese, IP, yeah. And there's a
challenge. So even Tesla, who isthe biggest of us in the US
making batteries. They get cellsfrom catl, C, A, T, L, and for
(08:07):
their energy storage, for theirgrid stuff. So we're gonna have
to, we're gonna have to see, Imean, they do have a new LFP
factory coming online in Nevada,so that's gonna help. Yeah, but
you know, we gotta look at IPand and it's not zero for fioc,
for IP, it's, it's a percentage,but it's, it's a percentage.
It's gonna get harder and harderas the years go on. Yeah. All
(08:34):
right, so well, so we got somevolume coming. We got to
Tim Montague (08:36):
get to this is, this is why we call it the solar
coaster. We get these bumps anddips, and we're getting a bump.
So ride the wave energyprofessionals, and just know
that as soon as we get a newadministration, things will
change, and the landscape willchange, and the energy
transition is full steam aheadglobally. So you can have a
(09:02):
bright future in clean energy.
There's just going to beturmoil. Resi is going to have a
harder Cliff sooner, and thencommercial and good companies
will survive. You got to you gotto have a good strategy. John,
the thing that you know, thetake home for me so far is lean
(09:23):
into batteries and lean intodiversification of
electrification, meaning HVAC oreven an allied trade, like
roofing and electrification oftransportation, car chargers. I
don't know if you have a Haveyou boiled it down for people
(09:44):
how to survive the downturn?
John Weaver (09:54):
No, I think number one in the residential space.
Yes. I mean, I know how I'mgoing to survive it for
residential, my residentialcompany is going to be supported
by a commercial company. I mean,that's really what's going to
come to for us, because we'renot a great residential company.
We build well, but we're not abig firm. We don't have all the
(10:16):
resources. We all have a salesteam. We just have inbound
leads. And so my company isgoing to have to be supported by
a previously existing commercialteam. That's what's going to
make my resi company work. Mycommercial company is going to
work because we're going to keepdoing solar and mass in Rhode
Island, which are very expensivemarkets for electricity, and
(10:37):
have state incentives. And thenwe're going to add and this is
something I'm slowly workingthrough right now, a
construction arm specificallyfocused on energy storage and
and that's, you know, we'regoing to keep building, and
that's how we're going to figureit out. We have to get tighter
in cost, those residentialcosts, they have to come down.
(10:59):
And, yeah, one way that we'regoing to do it is just you know,
we're going to be a low volumerezzy shop, so we're not going
to represent the real market,but people are just going to
have to tight costs. I mean,that's just going to be reality.
Um, people will still
Tim Montague (11:13):
any other way to do it. People will still install
solar at the at the residentiallevel, and it'll be, it'll be
smaller volume, so there will bea market contraction. So if
you're a good company doing goodwork, you'll you'll be fine. If
you're a solar bro, sellingsuper expensive solar, goodbye,
(11:34):
and that's okay. All right,let's get into the project of
the week. You found a verybeautiful, 875 kW carport
superstructure. That is onebadass carport.
John Weaver (11:52):
That's, that's, that's how I reacted. I was
like, Oh my gosh, look at allthat cool stuff on it. I mean,
look at the walls. It'senclosed. So it's coming from
Dallas, Dallas Fort Worth areagentlemen on blue sky, we were
talking about carports, and heposted their carport. The
company is CLS sustainable, andsome of the details, it's fully
(12:15):
walled and and it has a dropdown facade. On the inside,
it's, it's very it's lit likestandard, as any carport would
need to be with lighting. Butit's also by facial modules, so
it's very naturally lit as well.
And it's on top of a parkinglot, and it's just a beautiful
(12:36):
square. I mean, cleaning itshould be. I mean, it's probably
going to be required becausethere's, looks like it's a zero
slope, but I assume you couldjust put a robot on there and
let that thing just kind of goback and forth on its own, but I
don't know, and it's downtown,so of course, it'll get dirty,
but it's just looks so cool.
When that guy shared it with me,I was like, Oh my gosh,
Tim Montague (12:59):
yeah, it's pretty clean, I have to say. And I'd
like to know what the installedcost per watt was, just curious.
But, you know, shade is of apremium. A lot of we're going to
do a lot of carports eventually,carport solar alone could
(13:21):
completely green the grid, like,that's how many parking lots we
have in America. So there's morethan 10,000 I think the figure,
it's in my book, there's 13,000square miles of carports in the
United States. It's a huge thatmuch. Yeah,
John Weaver (13:39):
I remember there's like 2 billion parking spots,
but I don't know how many ofthose are, like, fully facing
the sun versus inside of acarport or in a house or
something. But
Tim Montague (13:51):
well, gardening spots, most of them are, are
exposed. Yeah, something like30% of LA, of the geography of
LA is parking a huge percentage.
So you can imagine a lot of thatconverted to battery containers
and solar panels. And it's agood thing, and it's good for
(14:12):
the grid. It's good forconsumers because it brings
prices down. That's one of thebummers, I think, about the BBB
John is everybody in America isgoing to see spikes in the cost
of energy at a time when wealready have inflation. And you
know, our paychecks aren't goingup. So it's just, it's just,
it's a tough time. And you and Iknow that LCOE of solar and
(14:40):
battery is is lower than the DoNothing strategy. So that's,
that's what we should do.
John Weaver (14:54):
I get mad when you tell me 30% of LA is parking and
people whine that we might. Want1% to power the whole nation. I
just want to punch things andsometimes people. Tim, not a
good thing. All right, to theshow. Tim, back to the show.
Tim Montague (15:15):
Back to the show.
Global grid scale best supportsa deployment increase over 50%
in h1 2025, reaching 87.6gigawatt hours, 14 Giga scale
projects have entered operationsso far this year. All right,
that's a good story. Get this onscreen.
John Weaver (15:36):
I like that.
Batteries are growing. Manbatteries at a new solar Tim. We
we gotta, we gotta be on theball. We gotta be pushing it. We
gotta understand it and know itbetter. The report that they
give you can sign up for. Theydon't let us get into it, but we
get to see some cool data here.
You know, China's starting todeploy massive batteries.
(15:56):
California is we may, if we geta chance talk about how
batteries are affectingcurtailment, which is a weird
word for most people inCalifornia, but but battery
growth, for me, is story of theyear. Is a story of last the
story of last year was batteryprice falling, and it's still
(16:17):
falling this year. So this righthere. This is going to be the
growth story, the growth engine,and this Tim, you want to keep
your business alive. Learn somebatteries. That's it. You want
to get rid of net metering.
Learn some batteries absolutelydemand charge. Learn some
batteries. You know what? That'sthat's what we're going to try
and do. We got to stay alive.
(16:39):
Yep,
Tim Montague (16:40):
I completely agree. Batteries are so three
dimensional compared to solar.
We love solar because theycollect photons. Solar panels
collect photons. Photons arefree, but batteries allow you to
store those electrons and thendeploy them on demand, 24/7, and
that is super valuable. That'ssomething a solar panel cannot
do, never will do, and that'sfine. That's why we have
batteries. We just need to builda lot of batteries, and that's a
(17:03):
problem when we're not reallyincentivizing factory
construction in America. So alot of the factories are still
getting built in Asia, andthat's a conundrum that we
haven't quite solved, but leaninto batteries for sure.
John Weaver (17:22):
So, so, yeah, so I just, you know, this is
benchmark. I We should get thisguy on the show again one day.
He's busy. He's all around. Theystarted covering copper
recently, yeah, but they stoppedputting out that cool chart,
which showed batteryannouncements, because I guess
it got above 10 terawatt hoursof factories, and they're just
like, oh my gosh, there's somany factories to track, but
(17:44):
it's growing. This is what we'retalking about. And what's neat,
I like the little chart at thebottom. We can see how much of
the batteries are justconnecting straight to the grid
versus how much are connectingto solar plants and direct to
wind plants. And I think thisstraight to the grid thing is
pretty cool. Uh, what's the termwireless transmission? So what
(18:06):
they mean by that is, instead ofupgrading the power grid to add
new wires, if you strategicallyadd batteries at a certain spot,
they can move the electricityduring non traffic jam times. So
to say, because the power gridgets a traffic jam, just like
the highway. And so if we moveelectricity and off times, we
(18:27):
can get it to the batteries, andit can hang out there. And then
when it's needed, then it canshoot out. So like downtown LA,
you want some of those parkingspots that have batteries, so
that at 5pm when all that solarin the desert is starting to
slow down and trying to getelectricity downtown. You got
the batteries and and they'rejust literally putting batteries
(18:49):
in wherever, you know. So it'sjust neat. I think the grid is
going to get smarter quicker. Idon't know, all kinds of things
with batteries on it, so, sothis is cool. You're gonna hear
me constantly talking about
Tim Montague (19:03):
big batteries too.
Yeah, I I love batteries. It'snot easy. I don't think it's
easy. I don't want to trivializeOkay, for the average solar
professional to understand thevalue stack, if you're still on
the sidelines, it boils down ina simple way, though, earn, save
protect, which I talked aboutlast time we did the show. Earn,
(19:24):
save protect, check outintelligent generation, and they
flesh this out for you. And youjust there are very few
technologies that have the stackthat batteries have, and that's
why they're being deployed onmass. And if you're a grid
operator, they're just greatnews, right? They're so flexible
and and as prices have comedown, and will continue to come
(19:50):
down, right? The more we build,the less the price will be. And
that's a virtuous cycle, allright? What's our next story?
John Weaver (20:02):
New York State?
Tim Montague (20:04):
Oh, I love this story. So you know, I I love to
tout that I live in a top 10solar market, but I'm barely in
top 10 solar market in Illinois.
John, New York is a top fivesolar market, and they've
achieved this by settingambitious targets, and now
(20:26):
they've just released a plan totarget 35 gigawatts of PV and
9.4 gigawatts of battery storageby 2040 I also love this photo.
I don't know if this is evenreal. This photo showing rooftop
units on a green roof, but therooftop units have cooling,
(20:48):
solar cooling shades over them,which is fascinating.
John Weaver (20:57):
Super cool. It can't be real. Whatever that is
that can't be real New YorkCity. I don't know what that
Tim Montague (21:04):
is. The thing that makes me think it's real, John
is that you actually have theselittle openings in the solar
panels for some access. And anormal, a normal, AI generated
photo would not have includedthose, and they're uniform
across the rooftop. But I don'tknow so, but yeah, New York is a
(21:24):
leader. If you if you live andwork in New York, you know this,
it's like Hawaii, California,Texas, New York. And New York
has NYSERDA, which is apowerhouse, and they are doing
very ambitious things, whichstarts with these goals, right?
(21:44):
If you don't set a goal, it'snot likely that you're going to
green your grid here inIllinois, our goal is 25% by
2025 and so this drop plans totarget 14 gigawatts of solar
installed by 2030 and that's alot of solar like we're gonna
(22:07):
do. We're gonna do 10 gigawattsin 10 years, I think, is the
plan in Illinois. So this isjust, yeah, it's it's ambitious,
it's good and it's ambitious
John Weaver (22:24):
and it's um, so first off, I'm looking at a
chart right now, just to kind ofgive you a little more credit,
though. But so New York is not atop five in terms of generation.
They only get six and a quarterpercent of their electricity
from solar as of the last monththat took puts him around 15 to
20. Illinois is only a fewstates behind him at 3% but New
(22:47):
York is trying very hard. Theyare pushing energy storage. They
are pushing, they are maybe thenation's leader community solar
market. And they are, you know,working really hard. In fact,
their utility scale is equal totheir distributed solar
generation. So they are doingwell. They do have some
(23:10):
challenges in that they haveprobably five gigawatts of
capacity they've awardedstarting in 2017 18 in what they
call their large array programthat have ever so slowly rolled
out. It's it's just hard forthese projects, and then the
(23:30):
covid inflation hit, and ourcurrent inflation that's hitting
those two things have alsoslowed these projects. So they
have great they're pushing hard.
They're pushing batteries. Infact, they just saw a their bulk
storage battery program. It'sgoing into the next round.
They're looking for RFPs. Sothis 35 gigs, 35 gigs of solar
and nine gigawatts of batteries.
(23:54):
It's going to probably even bebigger, because it keeps
growing. But the state's alsonow considering a little bit of
nuclear to get to plug a systemin a gigawatt of nukes, which
would be great. It's very farnorth state. But in the northern
half of the state, they have alot of hydroelectricity.
However, most of that'sCanadian. Bunch of it's from
Niagara Falls, though. Sothere's, it's a complex state
(24:16):
with a lot going on, and it's abig state, New York State.
There's 24 ish million people inthe States, yep. So then they
have this massive, wide openupstate area and this ultra
dense city area. So it's, it's astate that has a lot of work to
do. They have a lot of smartpeople working on it. NYSERDA is
(24:37):
just full of professionals,people that call could be
working on Wall Street if theywanted to. And they just, they
know so much good stuff. So I'mI of course, love being nearby
New York State. Every once in awhile we get to work in the
state. I was working on aproposal for somebody within the
state today, and we hope thatthe under 750 kW incentives.
(25:00):
Stays in place for thiscustomer, so we could keep their
ROI decent. But yes, they'reworking hard. They got a lot of
challenges. It's a big state, alot of challenging upstate
permitting and zoning. Batteryfires have caused some tension
with the people, and there areregions that are now banning
(25:20):
batteries. So, you know, I wasjust talking about batteries,
but just like solar gets pushedback, there's also battery
pushback in a lot of areas. Soit's working. I New York's
leading and pushing. They needto deploy a little faster,
though they got to deploy alittle bit faster, at least on
the solar side. Wind is hard toman. Wind is hard for those
(25:41):
folks. They're they're fightingevery project.
Tim Montague (25:44):
My definition of a good solar state is a state that
has a good DG market, meaningrooftop solar, and that includes
community solar, and thencommercial and residential, and
then also utility. And thatincludes New York,
Massachusetts, Illinois, NewJersey, and then the the big
(26:06):
dogs, okay? Texas, Florida,California. You know, Florida
and Texas are mostly utilityscale. They're on the map for
utility scale. There is a lot ofDG happening. They're both big
states with big populations. Sothere is a market for solar
installers in those statesrelative to their population.
(26:28):
It's just relatively smallpeanuts compared to a New York
or Illinois on the DG side, butdefinitely robust markets. So
I'm just a fan of settingambitious goals, and I wish more
states would do this. That'sanother signal from the BBB
(26:50):
John, is that the state leaversare more important now than
ever. Right? Yes, this is a wayfor states to incentivize solar
when the federal governmentisn't incentivizing us anymore,
or, you know, that's coming downthe pike. Incentives are going
away. We all want incentive freesolar, fundamentally, but we
(27:12):
also want a level playing fieldfor energy writ large. And so
that's, you know, we know wedon't have that. No, we don't,
not even close. So, all right,what's our next story?
John Weaver (27:31):
Tim? Tim, you got to keep your career focused. But
if you are having challengeswith sales, I have some
suggestions on how maybe wecould, you know, compliment your
income. Tim and so with that,would like to introduce to you
an article on distributingmethamphetamines.
Tim Montague (27:55):
US customs agency seizes 146 kilograms of math
hidden in solar panels. Story inPB magazine by Emiliano Bellini.
What's the story?
John Weaver (28:06):
First off, look at that panel. Can you zoom in on
that real quick? I mean, look atthe thickness of that panel. And
there was some other things. Idon't know if it's
Tim Montague (28:17):
gonna let you zoom but zoom in. All right, okay,
John Weaver (28:21):
so I went to the original Facebook posting, and
there were just some pieces ofdata that were just off the
wall. First off, these solarpanels were being air shipped
from LA to New Zealand. Who'sgonna send us manufactured solar
panels via an airplane to NewZealand. That's one of the
(28:43):
longest flights you can take onEarth. And and then the weight
of each panel, I think, I can'tremember right now, but each
panel was, like, 130 pounds. Andso, I mean, these customs
people, they look at projectsproducts all day long. And so
I'm sure that they were like,wow, those are, that's some
(29:03):
expensive shipping on thosesolar panels. I mean, who's
sending US manufacturing modulesto New Zealand when they can
literally have them boateddirect from China for probably
15 cents a watt? I wonder whatthe price was listed here. Like,
the meth is like a millionbucks. That's like a 500 watt
panel. So these are, like, Idon't know, $10,000 per watt
(29:24):
panels, roughly.
Tim Montague (29:28):
You know, I did see a documentary about drug
cartels recently, andapparently, a large amount of
illegal drugs are being shippedon commercial airlines in the
luggage, in the standard luggageof the passengers, unbeknownst
to the average Joe consumer. Sonow this is a little
(29:52):
extraordinary that they usedsolar panels and they were air
shipping solar panels, whichdoesn't make a whole lot of
sense Most solar panels wouldship. On a container ship. And
New Zealand can buy cheap panelsfrom Southeast Asia, which is in
their backyard. But, yeah, sothis, you know, it is an
(30:13):
interesting story. They arethey? Are they real solar
panels? Do you think or they'rejust fake solar panels? The
John Weaver (30:20):
images I looked at, they look weird. Like, click on
that. See if you can click onthe image on the left, they
were, like, really thick, yeah,look at that. That's like a four
inch thick solar panel, right? Idon't, I don't know if they were
actual, real units, and it lookslike they were individually
boxed the individual modules,yeah? So, like, all kinds of
(30:40):
weirdo stuff going on here. ButI guess you know that's meth
dealers selling solar panels.
Tim Montague (30:45):
But to your point, if, if you're casting about for
a new career,
John Weaver (30:53):
don't, don't do this one. We like you, solar
people. We need you. We needyou. Keep stay with us, please.
Tim Montague (30:59):
And you want to go to jail? Then, yes, you could
become a drug smuggler, but itwould probably be a good way to
go to jail. Yes, you might getrich, but you might also end up
in jail. All right, soelectricity rate hikes, yes,
John Weaver (31:19):
wanted to brought it up to a degree last week.
You're going to keep hearing mebring it up slowly. Tim, it's
going to be a new topic, andit's going to be when we see
dumb hikes like this is yourneighbor. Man, these are people
you might even know who aregetting this hike. I believe
that's Ameren. Is that Ameren inMissouri? Yes. Man, those rates,
that's like 30% so everybodyAmerindian Missouri has
(31:43):
submitted a rate request, andthe lowest increase in the price
of energy was 30% if you canclick on that image, it might
let you zoom in on it, and 30%maybe won't let you zoom maybe
you have to squeeze your browserwindow in from the width. Make
it not as wide you think. Thereyou go. That helps. Well, it
(32:08):
looks a little bigger, and thengive it a moment to sharpen. All
right. So if we look at thedifference here, we see 39% 32%
31% 29% this is a massiveincrease in an electricity bill
for people. You know what'sgoing to be the biggest
motivator over the next 10years? Tim it's going to be the
(32:29):
price of electricity gettingjacked up. That's going to make
our spreadsheets look just lookso much better. And I feel sorry
for all of us and how we'regoing to have to pay for these
electricity costs going throughthe roof. But then the other
side of me, the mean portion ofme, Tim saying, You know what,
people, it's about damn timeyou're gonna have to deal with
the consequences of cheapfossils. And this is it. This is
(32:54):
what's going to happen. You'regoing to start paying some cheap
fossil electricity that's nownot so cheap, and your price of
get everything's going to go up.
And those solar plants which andthose wind wind turbines which
were getting incentives and hada nice low electricity price,
that's going away now, ladiesand gentlemen. So now your new
price is going to be higher, andsolar is still cheaper than new
(33:17):
gas turbines, definitely cheaperthan new nukes. So your cheapest
energy is going to be now 30%cheap, more expensive, and it's
almost representative. We gotrid of a 30% tax credit, added
30% to the price of yourelectricity Missouri and your
Senator, Josh Hawley, he voted,he voted for you to jack up your
(33:39):
electricity rates. So Missouri,give your buddy Josh a call, see
if you can find him running awayfrom the Capitol building.
That's, that's, he does that alot. So that's, that's going to
be a thing. Price ofelectricity. Every time I see a
goofy request for a priceincrease, I'm bringing it here
so I can remind our sales peopleunderstand what the price of
(34:01):
electricity is and change thosevariables in your pricing model.
Now, because the world isdifferent than the way it was
the last 10 years, electricityincreases were slow. Right up
until covid hit. Covid hit, wegot a big whack. But in the
teens, electricity rates weregoing up very slowly due to all
that new natural gas. Now thegas is starting to get tapped
out a little bit. The new stuff,we're sending it
(34:24):
internationally. Oil prices areweird. So there's no free grass
gas. So there's some dynamics.
And then we have all this AIstuff. If AI is really going to
expand the way it is, if we doit, and it don't matter, we're
going to pay even higher rates,so so that. So I just, you know
(34:45):
there's going to be pricing ofelectricity coming, and it
seems, and that's going to bebad for us individually, but as
an industry, it is our expertiseto attack expensive electricity,
so there's going to be more ofit. Yeah.
Tim Montague (35:00):
Yeah, the higher the price of electricity, the
faster solar pencils, or solarand batteries, or whatever
alternative technology should wegive? Should we cover the news
from Europe? You've got a storyfrom Germany and a story from
Norway?
John Weaver (35:15):
Yeah? Well, the I mean this, these are both really
quick ones. So the story fromGermany is kind of our second
project of the week. I just sawit and thought it was the
neatest thing, just thisbuilding. It looks like the NSA
building, so you gotta Yeah, thewhole facade and the roof is
covered with solar panels thewest side and the south side.
(35:37):
And I just think that's neatlook at that, and it fits a
megawatt of solar on that and,and that's just cool. So that
was it. I just wanted to showoff a solar building. I mean, oh
yeah,
Tim Montague (35:51):
a whole office park. All these buildings you
see here have rooftop solar andfacade solar, and it looks damn
good, I have to say, I mean, Idon't know what the experience
is on the inside of this firstbuilding. It might be a little
dark, but this is definitely thefuture. I like to say, want to
(36:13):
see the future go to NorthernEurope and Jeopardy set the same
latitude as Canada. So, youknow, lower insulation, you know
where, you know we're talking 11109 to 1100 kWh, kWp, but
they're making a pencil and,
John Weaver (36:38):
yeah, just neat, just neat seeing this like the
whole facade is solar panels.
And, yeah, just cool. That's it.
And speaking of northern Europeand cool tech, yep, look at
that. Look at that chart. Oh,man,
Tim Montague (36:53):
share of cars currently in use that are
electric, okay? Norway.
John Weaver (36:59):
Now this is, you know, on an annual basis, their
sales of electric cars, yeah,are like 95% right? And so this
now,
Tim Montague (37:10):
30% of their cars on the road are a third of their
cars are electric.
John Weaver (37:16):
They must have chargers everywhere, I mean, and
all those cars are running onhydro, because Norway is like 90
some percent hydroelectric. Sothe cleanest cars on Earth are
in Norway, at least the electricones. Pretty much
Unknown (37:31):
feels like it, yep. Oh,
John Weaver (37:33):
man. And so that.
Just thought this chart wascool. Now there's one thing I
did notice, the rate of changeis slowing. So if you move your
mouse away, you can show us thatcurve. You can see that rate
kind of peaked,
Tim Montague (37:43):
yeah. It's starting to flatten off, right?
Yeah.
John Weaver (37:46):
So I there's going to be a dynamic that they talked
about, and we're, I guess we'restarting to see it. There's a
difference between and noticethat China's rate is like
ticking upward
Unknown (37:55):
a little bit. Yes, it is.
John Weaver (37:58):
So there's a so you have the flow, and you have the
storage. So the flow is that wehave 90 plus percent of new cars
coming out that are electric,but you have the existing volume
of cars which are which are big.
And so how is that rate going tochange? How is that rate going
(38:19):
to evolve? Is it going to stayflat for a while, till we get to
50% because these cars, last,you know, a car bought a gas car
bought year 2020, that should beon the road until maybe 2030
maybe 2035 so it's going to takea while for that to move towards
zero. But it is kind of cool. Itis cool seeing it so big there.
(38:41):
Man,
Tim Montague (38:44):
yeah. I mean, these pure electric vehicles,
they can go a million miles.
They have so many fewer movingparts, so the ice that that is
ultimately, what is the nail inthe coffin of the internal
combustion engine is it justwill not be able to compete. Now
we're still a few years awayfrom that, and our federal
government isn't helping at all.
(39:06):
But, yeah, we're at a whoppingwhat, 2.7% here in the US now.
Now in places like California,20% of new cars are electric, so
California is doing a good job,but they're by far a standout,
right? And I saw this morningthat rivian stock is in the
(39:30):
toilet. They they're an Illinoiscompany. They have a factory
just an hour away from where Ilive. I'm a huge fan. I don't
own a rivian. It's a premiumcar. You can't get a rivian for
less than $70,000 but toughtimes for the EV industry in the
United States, including Tesla,their sales have been down for
(39:50):
other reasons, I think, morepolitical reasons than anything.
But
John Weaver (39:58):
so so it's interesting. Interesting seeing,
uh, that cool building. Norway'sdoing its work. Last Story, Tim
and we gotta run. Okay, we gotone more. One more. Super fast.
Okay, so talk about California.
We talk about California a lot.
Tim Montague (40:14):
So there's this guy, John Weaver. He does good
he does good journalism in PVmagazine. California, solar
curtailment down 12% on back ofbatteries. All right, yes, get
this going. What's the story
John Weaver (40:29):
at high noon during spring in the fall, California
has massive amounts ofelectricity that it has to
what's called curtail. Andcurtailment means it literally
tells the power plants you needto stop producing electricity.
And there's a very cool littletechnical way it does it. But
last year, 13% of all solarelectricity through the end of
(40:55):
May was curtailed. That meansthere's like, places that don't
even get there. I like theamount of let's put it this way.
25% of all solar electricitygenerated in the US comes from
California. Now 13% of that wasjust not produced. So imagine if
(41:17):
California's extra 13% wasgenerated. That'd be like the
top or the bottom 10 states.
That might even be like NewYork. You know, the amount of
electricity that Californiacurtails is bigger than probably
the bottom 20 states. Now,here's the key last this year,
this spring, because the amountof batteries being installed,
curtailment has started to falllook at the orange versus the
(41:40):
green. So we've had batteriescoming on and on and on, and we
started off the year with a lotof curtailment, but then as the
batteries kept coming online,this year, we're now seeing
curtailment fall off versus lastyear. Now last year we may have
had a stronger April and May,and this year, there are some
weather effects, but we alsohave and this is the key, we
(42:04):
have 18% more solar this year,and curtailment is still down as
a percentage. This is because ofbatteries, and this is the real
reason I wanted to bring thisup. We're now installing enough
batteries that, not only that,we can install more solar and
(42:24):
more evening electricity thesystem stability. So batteries
and solar are now going tobecome a compounding effect.
Your batteries, your solar willneed batteries. Your batteries
will allow for more solar. Andin fact, your batteries are
going to need solar becausethey're going to need custom
(42:46):
energy. So we're, I guess we'regoing back to that first
conversation. Tim is, what arewe going to do as an industry
keep ourselves running? And it'sgoing to be batteries. And Rick,
we're going to get to thesecharts. Message me on LinkedIn,
or wait about a week, somebody'scommenting in our room. Tim,
wait about a week and it'll comethrough. And Aubrey also thinks
(43:08):
he sees some choppy video andaudio, just to let you know too.
Unknown (43:15):
Sorry.
John Weaver (43:19):
Yeah. So, so cool, yeah. So here, check this out.
Check out this chart. This iscurtailment. This day. This all
that blue is curtailment. That'sa lot of curtailment. Yeah, but
if you run the numbers, scrolldown just a tiny bit. I did a
little bit of math. Withoutbatteries in place, their
curtailment would have been 67%higher. And without the
batteries that we've installedsince 24 and 25 their
(43:42):
curtailment would be 38% higher.
So right now, batteries areallowing 67% more energy to come
out, like there would have beena massive amount of curtailment,
except batteries are starting tochange it. So, so that was it. I
just wanted to get this curtain.
We talk about California a lotbecause that's the place. Lot
(44:03):
because
Tim Montague (44:03):
that's place to be. But yeah, so in markets like
California, where we have highpenetration of wind and solar,
that grid is 50% wind and solarpowered. Now on a windy, sunny
spring day,
John Weaver (44:15):
right? It's 100% no on a wind on a windy, sunny day,
it's 100% solar.
Tim Montague (44:21):
Really, California's achieved 100%
John Weaver (44:25):
renewable, not renewables, Timothy solar, okay,
California,
Unknown (44:31):
check that listeners next in two weeks, ladies and
gentlemen, two weeks.
Tim Montague (44:37):
Okay, all right.
So anyway, so when you have highpenetration of renewables,
sometimes the utility has toomuch of a good thing and they
have to curtail, yes, andthey're just, I mean, there's a
variety of ways of doing this.
Sometimes they just run theelectricity into the ground. So.
(45:00):
Sometimes they just technically,that's not what occurs
John Weaver (45:02):
throttling the inverter, but that's actually
technically what happens is theinverter throttles the solar
panel. It causes that coollittle curve to run a little bit
off, and so the efficiency ofthe solar panel adjusts. So
that's technically where it'sgoing to occur. Is the they tell
the inverter you need tocurtail, and the inverter tells
the solar panels to run at aslightly different PowerPoint.
Tim Montague (45:25):
And what about any What about with wind?
John Weaver (45:29):
Oh, with wind? I Oh wind. Haha, wind, they will
slightly turn the turbine awayfrom the the wind, or they will
feather the blades. And when youfeather the blades, because
those blades aren't solidchunks, they actually have
little turning abilities. Sowhen you turn, you're slowing
the turbine down, essentially,yes, sir, yes.
Unknown (45:54):
Cool. Well,
Tim Montague (45:56):
we should let our listeners know, by the way,
yeah. Well, let's
John Weaver (45:59):
talk about Rick.
Rick is today having 410 kWFranklin wh batteries added to
his existing 24 KW solar array.
That's awesome, dude. Nice, nicesystem there. Rick,
Tim Montague (46:12):
40 kilowatts of batteries. And that's, that's
what, like 60 kWh, that's a lotof batteries. Looks like Rick
Hannah is going to be completelyoff grid after this
installation. He's getting,well,
John Weaver (46:30):
he's not taking a risk, and this is what a lot of
people are going to do. Man,price of electricity is going to
go up. Your household price isgoing to go up. Somebody in
Missouri is going to see theirbill go up 30% if they were
asked me, I would tell them tocall Rick say, you know, here's
how you fix it, buddy.
Tim Montague (46:47):
Did he say what market he's in?
John Weaver (46:50):
Well, I bet we could go on LinkedIn and find
out, because he's following oneof us, Rick Hannah. LinkedIn,
oh, man, there's like 100 link.
Rick Hannah's on LinkedIn,sorry, Rick, you're gonna have
to tell us
Tim Montague (47:05):
all right, so check out all of our content at
clean power hour.com, follow uson YouTube, give us a rating and
review and reach out to me onLinkedIn. How can our listeners
find you? Mr. John Weaver,
John Weaver (47:20):
LinkedIn and blue sky and my website, commercial
solar guy.com um, I'm on bluesky bunch. Not on Twitter, so
much. LinkedIn, lots and, uh,commercial solar guy.com we got
phone numbers emails. You caneven come visit our office if
you want. I'll give you a coffeeand some tea, and we have a
(47:43):
wonderful conversation aboutsolar.
Tim Montague (47:45):
All right. With that, I'll say, thanks so much
for being here all of ourlisteners, and let's grow solar
and storage. We'll see you in acouple weeks. You.
Tim, welcome to the Clean Power Hour live
(00:03):
bringing you the latest in wind,solar and battery storage news.
I'm Tim Montague. Check out allof our content at clean power
hour.com Give us a rating andreview. Check out my new book.
Go to the Book link on cleanpower hour.com and welcome to
the show. John Weaver,commercial show. Commercial
solar guy and my co host,welcome
John Weaver (00:23):
commercial.
Shoulder guy, yeah, shoulder.
Tim Montague (00:27):
Today it's shoulder. I have trouble talking
John Weaver (00:30):
big words, big words you say probably 1000
times a day. It's probablystressful to say it too many
more times I see you. Tim, uh,glad to, glad to talk with you
again. Sorry missed you onFriday at a company event. So
we're we got together. One ofour sales guys visited Boston,
and the team took a summerFriday. Is the term I hear, we
(00:51):
socialize, and hung out. Sothat's awesome. Bringing you
some news this week.
Tim Montague (00:55):
Yes, that is awesome. It's important to take
time out and take care of oneanother. The industry runs on
people. Sometimes we forgetthis. It's not just about
deploying technology. It'sactually people that matter
most, and we're trying to createa safer, healthier future for
humanity. If anyone asks you whywe want to do the energy
(01:17):
transition, like, why on earthshould we do this. It's about
the future of humanity. Really,the earth is going to be fine,
totally fine, with or withoutus. It's a question of, will we
survive, and under whatcondition that's gonna be a
question that's the mainmotivation for what, why I get
(01:39):
up in the morning and go to workis trying to create a safer
future for humanity. So let'sget into the news. There's
there's good news, there's badnews, there's weird news. Of
course, in 2025 there's lots ofweird news, but you found a you
found a story. Trump's law tocut us clean energy installs 41%
(02:04):
I would, I would put this in thebad news category, but that's
life in 2025 right? John,
John Weaver (02:10):
yes, yes. And, and this is a complex story, like
all everything we're dealingwith these days. No, it says
clean energy installs. So thisis a lot of things and but
there's also a shorter termwindow that's still good for us
as people who are working day today. So first off, at the
highest level, Bloomberg islooking at where they think the
(02:35):
solar industry will go. Butnotice this says, right here,
we'll plunge 41% after 2027 sowe're still in 25 Tim, we still
got some work to do for a coupleyears. And and here's the chart.
And this is clean energy. Andbefore we finish, I'm gonna talk
about solar, because Tim, that'swhat you and I do. But this is
(02:57):
everything. So in 25 we'reexpecting 72 gigawatts, AC of
clean energy capacity to bedeployed. That's going to be
energy storage, that's going tobe wind and solar. And 26 we're
expecting 85 gigawatts. 2781this is all coming from
(03:19):
Bloomberg, so these are numbersstill going up over the next
couple of years.
Tim Montague (03:23):
Yeah, because the ITC doesn't go off the cliff
until the end of 27 forcommercial, right,
John Weaver (03:29):
correct, correct.
And I don't know if youremember, but 2016 we had a
massive run up, because the ITCwas going to end and so, so So
what's going to happen overthese next three years, two and
a half years from today, maybesomething of that nature. So
that's kind of positive. Ish,yeah. And so that's, you know,
that's, that's it. So that'swhat we're working on now. Now,
(03:53):
Tim, I don't want to jump to thedocument, but would you do me a
favor and read what I have fromJenny Chase, that's actually on
the document that you can seefor this article How much DC
capacity of solar she suggestson the document that I pasted
there, right above the link, sothat we can compare.
Tim Montague (04:15):
Us clean energy installs 41% BNF says us solar
forecasts megawatt DC, totals,2025 2627 base case, fioc,
basically impossible to meet.
53.1 gigawatts, 61.1 59.8 32.3 Idon't quite understand, but
John Weaver (04:40):
All right, so let's go over it and I can so first,
5362 and then back to 50. Thisis with and so this, I'm going
to say, is really positive.
We're expecting an expansion ofsolar, 5362 and back to 50 for
the next three. Years if fioc,foreign entity of concern is a
(05:02):
big challenge, if it turns outthat the Trump administration is
going to attack everything thathas any association with China,
and we have to really mess upour supply chains, yeah, those
are the numbers that she's thatBNF, Bloomberg, New Energy
Finance, BNF is accepting 5360backed it into the 50s now with
(05:26):
fioc and so read the rest of itwith fioc being manageable. What
kind of capacities does sheproject? That's the second half
of that little column of thatrow,
Tim Montague (05:45):
5361, 50, well, 60 and 32
John Weaver (05:53):
and that's with the fioc manageable, or is that the
first one? Let's see. Wow. Sothen with Oh, so it's similar,
ish, so a little bit all else.
Maybe that's just the Fiatnumber. So, so, so what this is,
is that in the next two and ahalf years, we're going to
deploy a lot of solar, we'regoing to set a record, maybe
this year, with 53 gigs, becauselast year we were like 49.9
(06:14):
Yeah. And then next year, we'regoing to set another record,
maybe over 60 gigs, and thenwe're going to have another 50
gig plus year in 27 that's ifthe Fiat stuff is really hard,
it might ease a little we mighthave a little bit cheaper
hardware. We might get a littlemore installed. But with the
negative and the positive hereis after the next two and a half
(06:36):
years, we all got a lot of workto do, and we need to pound and
get through things as fast as wecan. And then, what the heck's
going to happen in 28 I don'tknow. Maybe we're going to have,
you know, it says 32 gigawattsof solar. That's still a big
number. I mean, 32 gigs is agreat number, but it's going to
be less dispersed. It's going tobe heavy in the commercial
space. And and 2829 30 that'swhen we're going to start seeing
(06:59):
problems in the industry, size,capacity, maybe people getting
fired. And so that's, you know,we got to push hard. Well, two
years we're already seeingpeople get fired. Tim,
Tim Montague (07:12):
yeah, we are already seeing layoffs, just to
be honest, right? The layoffsare happening, and companies
have to be conservative aboutthe forecast. It's, it's hard to
know what the true impact offioc is going to be, you know.
And at its core, you know, theproblem with fioc is that China
is, is, is one of these foreignentities. They're the main maker
(07:35):
of, for example, battery cells.
Our battery cells on the fioclist, I think, I think they are,
it's
John Weaver (07:44):
IP, it's not even cells. I don't even think they
talk about hardware. They talkabout IP, yeah, so if the cell
can be made in Ohio, but if it'sChinese, IP, yeah. And there's a
challenge. So even Tesla, who isthe biggest of us in the US
making batteries. They get cellsfrom catl, C, A, T, L, and for
(08:07):
their energy storage, for theirgrid stuff. So we're gonna have
to, we're gonna have to see, Imean, they do have a new LFP
factory coming online in Nevada,so that's gonna help. Yeah, but
you know, we gotta look at IPand and it's not zero for fioc,
for IP, it's, it's a percentage,but it's, it's a percentage.
It's gonna get harder and harderas the years go on. Yeah. All
(08:34):
right, so well, so we got somevolume coming. We got to
Tim Montague (08:36):
get to this is, this is why we call it the solar
coaster. We get these bumps anddips, and we're getting a bump.
So ride the wave energyprofessionals, and just know
that as soon as we get a newadministration, things will
change, and the landscape willchange, and the energy
transition is full steam aheadglobally. So you can have a
(09:02):
bright future in clean energy.
There's just going to beturmoil. Resi is going to have a
harder Cliff sooner, and thencommercial and good companies
will survive. You got to you gotto have a good strategy. John,
the thing that you know, thetake home for me so far is lean
(09:23):
into batteries and lean intodiversification of
electrification, meaning HVAC oreven an allied trade, like
roofing and electrification oftransportation, car chargers. I
don't know if you have a Haveyou boiled it down for people
(09:44):
how to survive the downturn?
John Weaver (09:54):
No, I think number one in the residential space.
Yes. I mean, I know how I'mgoing to survive it for
residential, my residentialcompany is going to be supported
by a commercial company. I mean,that's really what's going to
come to for us, because we'renot a great residential company.
We build well, but we're not abig firm. We don't have all the
(10:16):
resources. We all have a salesteam. We just have inbound
leads. And so my company isgoing to have to be supported by
a previously existing commercialteam. That's what's going to
make my resi company work. Mycommercial company is going to
work because we're going to keepdoing solar and mass in Rhode
Island, which are very expensivemarkets for electricity, and
(10:37):
have state incentives. And thenwe're going to add and this is
something I'm slowly workingthrough right now, a
construction arm specificallyfocused on energy storage and
and that's, you know, we'regoing to keep building, and
that's how we're going to figureit out. We have to get tighter
in cost, those residentialcosts, they have to come down.
(10:59):
And, yeah, one way that we'regoing to do it is just you know,
we're going to be a low volumerezzy shop, so we're not going
to represent the real market,but people are just going to
have to tight costs. I mean,that's just going to be reality.
Um, people will still
Tim Montague (11:13):
any other way to do it. People will still install
solar at the at the residentiallevel, and it'll be, it'll be
smaller volume, so there will bea market contraction. So if
you're a good company doing goodwork, you'll you'll be fine. If
you're a solar bro, sellingsuper expensive solar, goodbye,
(11:34):
and that's okay. All right,let's get into the project of
the week. You found a verybeautiful, 875 kW carport
superstructure. That is onebadass carport.
John Weaver (11:52):
That's, that's, that's how I reacted. I was
like, Oh my gosh, look at allthat cool stuff on it. I mean,
look at the walls. It'senclosed. So it's coming from
Dallas, Dallas Fort Worth areagentlemen on blue sky, we were
talking about carports, and heposted their carport. The
company is CLS sustainable, andsome of the details, it's fully
(12:15):
walled and and it has a dropdown facade. On the inside,
it's, it's very it's lit likestandard, as any carport would
need to be with lighting. Butit's also by facial modules, so
it's very naturally lit as well.
And it's on top of a parkinglot, and it's just a beautiful
(12:36):
square. I mean, cleaning itshould be. I mean, it's probably
going to be required becausethere's, looks like it's a zero
slope, but I assume you couldjust put a robot on there and
let that thing just kind of goback and forth on its own, but I
don't know, and it's downtown,so of course, it'll get dirty,
but it's just looks so cool.
When that guy shared it with me,I was like, Oh my gosh,
Tim Montague (12:59):
yeah, it's pretty clean, I have to say. And I'd
like to know what the installedcost per watt was, just curious.
But, you know, shade is of apremium. A lot of we're going to
do a lot of carports eventually,carport solar alone could
(13:21):
completely green the grid, like,that's how many parking lots we
have in America. So there's morethan 10,000 I think the figure,
it's in my book, there's 13,000square miles of carports in the
United States. It's a huge thatmuch. Yeah,
John Weaver (13:39):
I remember there's like 2 billion parking spots,
but I don't know how many ofthose are, like, fully facing
the sun versus inside of acarport or in a house or
something. But
Tim Montague (13:51):
well, gardening spots, most of them are, are
exposed. Yeah, something like30% of LA, of the geography of
LA is parking a huge percentage.
So you can imagine a lot of thatconverted to battery containers
and solar panels. And it's agood thing, and it's good for
(14:12):
the grid. It's good forconsumers because it brings
prices down. That's one of thebummers, I think, about the BBB
John is everybody in America isgoing to see spikes in the cost
of energy at a time when wealready have inflation. And you
know, our paychecks aren't goingup. So it's just, it's just,
it's a tough time. And you and Iknow that LCOE of solar and
(14:40):
battery is is lower than the DoNothing strategy. So that's,
that's what we should do.
John Weaver (14:54):
I get mad when you tell me 30% of LA is parking and
people whine that we might. Want1% to power the whole nation. I
just want to punch things andsometimes people. Tim, not a
good thing. All right, to theshow. Tim, back to the show.
Tim Montague (15:15):
Back to the show.
Global grid scale best supportsa deployment increase over 50%
in h1 2025, reaching 87.6gigawatt hours, 14 Giga scale
projects have entered operationsso far this year. All right,
that's a good story. Get this onscreen.
John Weaver (15:36):
I like that.
Batteries are growing. Manbatteries at a new solar Tim. We
we gotta, we gotta be on theball. We gotta be pushing it. We
gotta understand it and know itbetter. The report that they
give you can sign up for. Theydon't let us get into it, but we
get to see some cool data here.
You know, China's starting todeploy massive batteries.
(15:56):
California is we may, if we geta chance talk about how
batteries are affectingcurtailment, which is a weird
word for most people inCalifornia, but but battery
growth, for me, is story of theyear. Is a story of last the
story of last year was batteryprice falling, and it's still
(16:17):
falling this year. So this righthere. This is going to be the
growth story, the growth engine,and this Tim, you want to keep
your business alive. Learn somebatteries. That's it. You want
to get rid of net metering.
Learn some batteries absolutelydemand charge. Learn some
batteries. You know what? That'sthat's what we're going to try
and do. We got to stay alive.
(16:39):
Yep,
Tim Montague (16:40):
I completely agree. Batteries are so three
dimensional compared to solar.
We love solar because theycollect photons. Solar panels
collect photons. Photons arefree, but batteries allow you to
store those electrons and thendeploy them on demand, 24/7, and
that is super valuable. That'ssomething a solar panel cannot
do, never will do, and that'sfine. That's why we have
batteries. We just need to builda lot of batteries, and that's a
(17:03):
problem when we're not reallyincentivizing factory
construction in America. So alot of the factories are still
getting built in Asia, andthat's a conundrum that we
haven't quite solved, but leaninto batteries for sure.
John Weaver (17:22):
So, so, yeah, so I just, you know, this is
benchmark. I We should get thisguy on the show again one day.
He's busy. He's all around. Theystarted covering copper
recently, yeah, but they stoppedputting out that cool chart,
which showed batteryannouncements, because I guess
it got above 10 terawatt hoursof factories, and they're just
like, oh my gosh, there's somany factories to track, but
(17:44):
it's growing. This is what we'retalking about. And what's neat,
I like the little chart at thebottom. We can see how much of
the batteries are justconnecting straight to the grid
versus how much are connectingto solar plants and direct to
wind plants. And I think thisstraight to the grid thing is
pretty cool. Uh, what's the termwireless transmission? So what
(18:06):
they mean by that is, instead ofupgrading the power grid to add
new wires, if you strategicallyadd batteries at a certain spot,
they can move the electricityduring non traffic jam times. So
to say, because the power gridgets a traffic jam, just like
the highway. And so if we moveelectricity and off times, we
(18:27):
can get it to the batteries, andit can hang out there. And then
when it's needed, then it canshoot out. So like downtown LA,
you want some of those parkingspots that have batteries, so
that at 5pm when all that solarin the desert is starting to
slow down and trying to getelectricity downtown. You got
the batteries and and they'rejust literally putting batteries
(18:49):
in wherever, you know. So it'sjust neat. I think the grid is
going to get smarter quicker. Idon't know, all kinds of things
with batteries on it, so, sothis is cool. You're gonna hear
me constantly talking about
Tim Montague (19:03):
big batteries too.
Yeah, I I love batteries. It'snot easy. I don't think it's
easy. I don't want to trivializeOkay, for the average solar
professional to understand thevalue stack, if you're still on
the sidelines, it boils down ina simple way, though, earn, save
protect, which I talked aboutlast time we did the show. Earn,
(19:24):
save protect, check outintelligent generation, and they
flesh this out for you. And youjust there are very few
technologies that have the stackthat batteries have, and that's
why they're being deployed onmass. And if you're a grid
operator, they're just greatnews, right? They're so flexible
and and as prices have comedown, and will continue to come
(19:50):
down, right? The more we build,the less the price will be. And
that's a virtuous cycle, allright? What's our next story?
John Weaver (20:02):
New York State?
Tim Montague (20:04):
Oh, I love this story. So you know, I I love to
tout that I live in a top 10solar market, but I'm barely in
top 10 solar market in Illinois.
John, New York is a top fivesolar market, and they've
achieved this by settingambitious targets, and now
(20:26):
they've just released a plan totarget 35 gigawatts of PV and
9.4 gigawatts of battery storageby 2040 I also love this photo.
I don't know if this is evenreal. This photo showing rooftop
units on a green roof, but therooftop units have cooling,
(20:48):
solar cooling shades over them,which is fascinating.
John Weaver (20:57):
Super cool. It can't be real. Whatever that is
that can't be real New YorkCity. I don't know what that
Tim Montague (21:04):
is. The thing that makes me think it's real, John
is that you actually have theselittle openings in the solar
panels for some access. And anormal, a normal, AI generated
photo would not have includedthose, and they're uniform
across the rooftop. But I don'tknow so, but yeah, New York is a
(21:24):
leader. If you if you live andwork in New York, you know this,
it's like Hawaii, California,Texas, New York. And New York
has NYSERDA, which is apowerhouse, and they are doing
very ambitious things, whichstarts with these goals, right?
(21:44):
If you don't set a goal, it'snot likely that you're going to
green your grid here inIllinois, our goal is 25% by
2025 and so this drop plans totarget 14 gigawatts of solar
installed by 2030 and that's alot of solar like we're gonna
(22:07):
do. We're gonna do 10 gigawattsin 10 years, I think, is the
plan in Illinois. So this isjust, yeah, it's it's ambitious,
it's good and it's ambitious
John Weaver (22:24):
and it's um, so first off, I'm looking at a
chart right now, just to kind ofgive you a little more credit,
though. But so New York is not atop five in terms of generation.
They only get six and a quarterpercent of their electricity
from solar as of the last monththat took puts him around 15 to
20. Illinois is only a fewstates behind him at 3% but New
(22:47):
York is trying very hard. Theyare pushing energy storage. They
are pushing, they are maybe thenation's leader community solar
market. And they are, you know,working really hard. In fact,
their utility scale is equal totheir distributed solar
generation. So they are doingwell. They do have some
(23:10):
challenges in that they haveprobably five gigawatts of
capacity they've awardedstarting in 2017 18 in what they
call their large array programthat have ever so slowly rolled
out. It's it's just hard forthese projects, and then the
(23:30):
covid inflation hit, and ourcurrent inflation that's hitting
those two things have alsoslowed these projects. So they
have great they're pushing hard.
They're pushing batteries. Infact, they just saw a their bulk
storage battery program. It'sgoing into the next round.
They're looking for RFPs. Sothis 35 gigs, 35 gigs of solar
and nine gigawatts of batteries.
(23:54):
It's going to probably even bebigger, because it keeps
growing. But the state's alsonow considering a little bit of
nuclear to get to plug a systemin a gigawatt of nukes, which
would be great. It's very farnorth state. But in the northern
half of the state, they have alot of hydroelectricity.
However, most of that'sCanadian. Bunch of it's from
Niagara Falls, though. Sothere's, it's a complex state
(24:16):
with a lot going on, and it's abig state, New York State.
There's 24 ish million people inthe States, yep. So then they
have this massive, wide openupstate area and this ultra
dense city area. So it's, it's astate that has a lot of work to
do. They have a lot of smartpeople working on it. NYSERDA is
(24:37):
just full of professionals,people that call could be
working on Wall Street if theywanted to. And they just, they
know so much good stuff. So I'mI of course, love being nearby
New York State. Every once in awhile we get to work in the
state. I was working on aproposal for somebody within the
state today, and we hope thatthe under 750 kW incentives.
(25:00):
Stays in place for thiscustomer, so we could keep their
ROI decent. But yes, they'reworking hard. They got a lot of
challenges. It's a big state, alot of challenging upstate
permitting and zoning. Batteryfires have caused some tension
with the people, and there areregions that are now banning
(25:20):
batteries. So, you know, I wasjust talking about batteries,
but just like solar gets pushedback, there's also battery
pushback in a lot of areas. Soit's working. I New York's
leading and pushing. They needto deploy a little faster,
though they got to deploy alittle bit faster, at least on
the solar side. Wind is hard toman. Wind is hard for those
(25:41):
folks. They're they're fightingevery project.
Tim Montague (25:44):
My definition of a good solar state is a state that
has a good DG market, meaningrooftop solar, and that includes
community solar, and thencommercial and residential, and
then also utility. And thatincludes New York,
Massachusetts, Illinois, NewJersey, and then the the big
(26:06):
dogs, okay? Texas, Florida,California. You know, Florida
and Texas are mostly utilityscale. They're on the map for
utility scale. There is a lot ofDG happening. They're both big
states with big populations. Sothere is a market for solar
installers in those statesrelative to their population.
(26:28):
It's just relatively smallpeanuts compared to a New York
or Illinois on the DG side, butdefinitely robust markets. So
I'm just a fan of settingambitious goals, and I wish more
states would do this. That'sanother signal from the BBB
(26:50):
John, is that the state leaversare more important now than
ever. Right? Yes, this is a wayfor states to incentivize solar
when the federal governmentisn't incentivizing us anymore,
or, you know, that's coming downthe pike. Incentives are going
away. We all want incentive freesolar, fundamentally, but we
(27:12):
also want a level playing fieldfor energy writ large. And so
that's, you know, we know wedon't have that. No, we don't,
not even close. So, all right,what's our next story?
John Weaver (27:31):
Tim? Tim, you got to keep your career focused. But
if you are having challengeswith sales, I have some
suggestions on how maybe wecould, you know, compliment your
income. Tim and so with that,would like to introduce to you
an article on distributingmethamphetamines.
Tim Montague (27:55):
US customs agency seizes 146 kilograms of math
hidden in solar panels. Story inPB magazine by Emiliano Bellini.
What's the story?
John Weaver (28:06):
First off, look at that panel. Can you zoom in on
that real quick? I mean, look atthe thickness of that panel. And
there was some other things. Idon't know if it's
Tim Montague (28:17):
gonna let you zoom but zoom in. All right, okay,
John Weaver (28:21):
so I went to the original Facebook posting, and
there were just some pieces ofdata that were just off the
wall. First off, these solarpanels were being air shipped
from LA to New Zealand. Who'sgonna send us manufactured solar
panels via an airplane to NewZealand. That's one of the
(28:43):
longest flights you can take onEarth. And and then the weight
of each panel, I think, I can'tremember right now, but each
panel was, like, 130 pounds. Andso, I mean, these customs
people, they look at projectsproducts all day long. And so
I'm sure that they were like,wow, those are, that's some
(29:03):
expensive shipping on thosesolar panels. I mean, who's
sending US manufacturing modulesto New Zealand when they can
literally have them boateddirect from China for probably
15 cents a watt? I wonder whatthe price was listed here. Like,
the meth is like a millionbucks. That's like a 500 watt
panel. So these are, like, Idon't know, $10,000 per watt
(29:24):
panels, roughly.
Tim Montague (29:28):
You know, I did see a documentary about drug
cartels recently, andapparently, a large amount of
illegal drugs are being shippedon commercial airlines in the
luggage, in the standard luggageof the passengers, unbeknownst
to the average Joe consumer. Sonow this is a little
(29:52):
extraordinary that they usedsolar panels and they were air
shipping solar panels, whichdoesn't make a whole lot of
sense Most solar panels wouldship. On a container ship. And
New Zealand can buy cheap panelsfrom Southeast Asia, which is in
their backyard. But, yeah, sothis, you know, it is an
(30:13):
interesting story. They arethey? Are they real solar
panels? Do you think or they'rejust fake solar panels? The
John Weaver (30:20):
images I looked at, they look weird. Like, click on
that. See if you can click onthe image on the left, they
were, like, really thick, yeah,look at that. That's like a four
inch thick solar panel, right? Idon't, I don't know if they were
actual, real units, and it lookslike they were individually
boxed the individual modules,yeah? So, like, all kinds of
(30:40):
weirdo stuff going on here. ButI guess you know that's meth
dealers selling solar panels.
Tim Montague (30:45):
But to your point, if, if you're casting about for
a new career,
John Weaver (30:53):
don't, don't do this one. We like you, solar
people. We need you. We needyou. Keep stay with us, please.
Tim Montague (30:59):
And you want to go to jail? Then, yes, you could
become a drug smuggler, but itwould probably be a good way to
go to jail. Yes, you might getrich, but you might also end up
in jail. All right, soelectricity rate hikes, yes,
John Weaver (31:19):
wanted to brought it up to a degree last week.
You're going to keep hearing mebring it up slowly. Tim, it's
going to be a new topic, andit's going to be when we see
dumb hikes like this is yourneighbor. Man, these are people
you might even know who aregetting this hike. I believe
that's Ameren. Is that Ameren inMissouri? Yes. Man, those rates,
that's like 30% so everybodyAmerindian Missouri has
(31:43):
submitted a rate request, andthe lowest increase in the price
of energy was 30% if you canclick on that image, it might
let you zoom in on it, and 30%maybe won't let you zoom maybe
you have to squeeze your browserwindow in from the width. Make
it not as wide you think. Thereyou go. That helps. Well, it
(32:08):
looks a little bigger, and thengive it a moment to sharpen. All
right. So if we look at thedifference here, we see 39% 32%
31% 29% this is a massiveincrease in an electricity bill
for people. You know what'sgoing to be the biggest
motivator over the next 10years? Tim it's going to be the
(32:29):
price of electricity gettingjacked up. That's going to make
our spreadsheets look just lookso much better. And I feel sorry
for all of us and how we'regoing to have to pay for these
electricity costs going throughthe roof. But then the other
side of me, the mean portion ofme, Tim saying, You know what,
people, it's about damn timeyou're gonna have to deal with
the consequences of cheapfossils. And this is it. This is
(32:54):
what's going to happen. You'regoing to start paying some cheap
fossil electricity that's nownot so cheap, and your price of
get everything's going to go up.
And those solar plants which andthose wind wind turbines which
were getting incentives and hada nice low electricity price,
that's going away now, ladiesand gentlemen. So now your new
price is going to be higher, andsolar is still cheaper than new
(33:17):
gas turbines, definitely cheaperthan new nukes. So your cheapest
energy is going to be now 30%cheap, more expensive, and it's
almost representative. We gotrid of a 30% tax credit, added
30% to the price of yourelectricity Missouri and your
Senator, Josh Hawley, he voted,he voted for you to jack up your
(33:39):
electricity rates. So Missouri,give your buddy Josh a call, see
if you can find him running awayfrom the Capitol building.
That's, that's, he does that alot. So that's, that's going to
be a thing. Price ofelectricity. Every time I see a
goofy request for a priceincrease, I'm bringing it here
so I can remind our sales peopleunderstand what the price of
(34:01):
electricity is and change thosevariables in your pricing model.
Now, because the world isdifferent than the way it was
the last 10 years, electricityincreases were slow. Right up
until covid hit. Covid hit, wegot a big whack. But in the
teens, electricity rates weregoing up very slowly due to all
that new natural gas. Now thegas is starting to get tapped
out a little bit. The new stuff,we're sending it
(34:24):
internationally. Oil prices areweird. So there's no free grass
gas. So there's some dynamics.
And then we have all this AIstuff. If AI is really going to
expand the way it is, if we doit, and it don't matter, we're
going to pay even higher rates,so so that. So I just, you know
(34:45):
there's going to be pricing ofelectricity coming, and it
seems, and that's going to bebad for us individually, but as
an industry, it is our expertiseto attack expensive electricity,
so there's going to be more ofit. Yeah.
Tim Montague (35:00):
Yeah, the higher the price of electricity, the
faster solar pencils, or solarand batteries, or whatever
alternative technology should wegive? Should we cover the news
from Europe? You've got a storyfrom Germany and a story from
Norway?
John Weaver (35:15):
Yeah? Well, the I mean this, these are both really
quick ones. So the story fromGermany is kind of our second
project of the week. I just sawit and thought it was the
neatest thing, just thisbuilding. It looks like the NSA
building, so you gotta Yeah, thewhole facade and the roof is
covered with solar panels thewest side and the south side.
(35:37):
And I just think that's neatlook at that, and it fits a
megawatt of solar on that and,and that's just cool. So that
was it. I just wanted to showoff a solar building. I mean, oh
yeah,
Tim Montague (35:51):
a whole office park. All these buildings you
see here have rooftop solar andfacade solar, and it looks damn
good, I have to say, I mean, Idon't know what the experience
is on the inside of this firstbuilding. It might be a little
dark, but this is definitely thefuture. I like to say, want to
(36:13):
see the future go to NorthernEurope and Jeopardy set the same
latitude as Canada. So, youknow, lower insulation, you know
where, you know we're talking 11109 to 1100 kWh, kWp, but
they're making a pencil and,
John Weaver (36:38):
yeah, just neat, just neat seeing this like the
whole facade is solar panels.
And, yeah, just cool. That's it.
And speaking of northern Europeand cool tech, yep, look at
that. Look at that chart. Oh,man,
Tim Montague (36:53):
share of cars currently in use that are
electric, okay? Norway.
John Weaver (36:59):
Now this is, you know, on an annual basis, their
sales of electric cars, yeah,are like 95% right? And so this
now,
Tim Montague (37:10):
30% of their cars on the road are a third of their
cars are electric.
John Weaver (37:16):
They must have chargers everywhere, I mean, and
all those cars are running onhydro, because Norway is like 90
some percent hydroelectric. Sothe cleanest cars on Earth are
in Norway, at least the electricones. Pretty much
Unknown (37:31):
feels like it, yep. Oh,
John Weaver (37:33):
man. And so that.
Just thought this chart wascool. Now there's one thing I
did notice, the rate of changeis slowing. So if you move your
mouse away, you can show us thatcurve. You can see that rate
kind of peaked,
Tim Montague (37:43):
yeah. It's starting to flatten off, right?
Yeah.
John Weaver (37:46):
So I there's going to be a dynamic that they talked
about, and we're, I guess we'restarting to see it. There's a
difference between and noticethat China's rate is like
ticking upward
Unknown (37:55):
a little bit. Yes, it is.
John Weaver (37:58):
So there's a so you have the flow, and you have the
storage. So the flow is that wehave 90 plus percent of new cars
coming out that are electric,but you have the existing volume
of cars which are which are big.
And so how is that rate going tochange? How is that rate going
(38:19):
to evolve? Is it going to stayflat for a while, till we get to
50% because these cars, last,you know, a car bought a gas car
bought year 2020, that should beon the road until maybe 2030
maybe 2035 so it's going to takea while for that to move towards
zero. But it is kind of cool. Itis cool seeing it so big there.
(38:41):
Man,
Tim Montague (38:44):
yeah. I mean, these pure electric vehicles,
they can go a million miles.
They have so many fewer movingparts, so the ice that that is
ultimately, what is the nail inthe coffin of the internal
combustion engine is it justwill not be able to compete. Now
we're still a few years awayfrom that, and our federal
government isn't helping at all.
(39:06):
But, yeah, we're at a whoppingwhat, 2.7% here in the US now.
Now in places like California,20% of new cars are electric, so
California is doing a good job,but they're by far a standout,
right? And I saw this morningthat rivian stock is in the
(39:30):
toilet. They they're an Illinoiscompany. They have a factory
just an hour away from where Ilive. I'm a huge fan. I don't
own a rivian. It's a premiumcar. You can't get a rivian for
less than $70,000 but toughtimes for the EV industry in the
United States, including Tesla,their sales have been down for
(39:50):
other reasons, I think, morepolitical reasons than anything.
But
John Weaver (39:58):
so so it's interesting. Interesting seeing,
uh, that cool building. Norway'sdoing its work. Last Story, Tim
and we gotta run. Okay, we gotone more. One more. Super fast.
Okay, so talk about California.
We talk about California a lot.
Tim Montague (40:14):
So there's this guy, John Weaver. He does good
he does good journalism in PVmagazine. California, solar
curtailment down 12% on back ofbatteries. All right, yes, get
this going. What's the story
John Weaver (40:29):
at high noon during spring in the fall, California
has massive amounts ofelectricity that it has to
what's called curtail. Andcurtailment means it literally
tells the power plants you needto stop producing electricity.
And there's a very cool littletechnical way it does it. But
last year, 13% of all solarelectricity through the end of
(40:55):
May was curtailed. That meansthere's like, places that don't
even get there. I like theamount of let's put it this way.
25% of all solar electricitygenerated in the US comes from
California. Now 13% of that wasjust not produced. So imagine if
(41:17):
California's extra 13% wasgenerated. That'd be like the
top or the bottom 10 states.
That might even be like NewYork. You know, the amount of
electricity that Californiacurtails is bigger than probably
the bottom 20 states. Now,here's the key last this year,
this spring, because the amountof batteries being installed,
curtailment has started to falllook at the orange versus the
(41:40):
green. So we've had batteriescoming on and on and on, and we
started off the year with a lotof curtailment, but then as the
batteries kept coming online,this year, we're now seeing
curtailment fall off versus lastyear. Now last year we may have
had a stronger April and May,and this year, there are some
weather effects, but we alsohave and this is the key, we
(42:04):
have 18% more solar this year,and curtailment is still down as
a percentage. This is because ofbatteries, and this is the real
reason I wanted to bring thisup. We're now installing enough
batteries that, not only that,we can install more solar and
(42:24):
more evening electricity thesystem stability. So batteries
and solar are now going tobecome a compounding effect.
Your batteries, your solar willneed batteries. Your batteries
will allow for more solar. Andin fact, your batteries are
going to need solar becausethey're going to need custom
(42:46):
energy. So we're, I guess we'regoing back to that first
conversation. Tim is, what arewe going to do as an industry
keep ourselves running? And it'sgoing to be batteries. And Rick,
we're going to get to thesecharts. Message me on LinkedIn,
or wait about a week, somebody'scommenting in our room. Tim,
wait about a week and it'll comethrough. And Aubrey also thinks
(43:08):
he sees some choppy video andaudio, just to let you know too.
Unknown (43:15):
Sorry.
John Weaver (43:19):
Yeah. So, so cool, yeah. So here, check this out.
Check out this chart. This iscurtailment. This day. This all
that blue is curtailment. That'sa lot of curtailment. Yeah, but
if you run the numbers, scrolldown just a tiny bit. I did a
little bit of math. Withoutbatteries in place, their
curtailment would have been 67%higher. And without the
batteries that we've installedsince 24 and 25 their
(43:42):
curtailment would be 38% higher.
So right now, batteries areallowing 67% more energy to come
out, like there would have beena massive amount of curtailment,
except batteries are starting tochange it. So, so that was it. I
just wanted to get this curtain.
We talk about California a lotbecause that's the place. Lot
(44:03):
because
Tim Montague (44:03):
that's place to be. But yeah, so in markets like
California, where we have highpenetration of wind and solar,
that grid is 50% wind and solarpowered. Now on a windy, sunny
spring day,
John Weaver (44:15):
right? It's 100% no on a wind on a windy, sunny day,
it's 100% solar.
Tim Montague (44:21):
Really, California's achieved 100%
John Weaver (44:25):
renewable, not renewables, Timothy solar, okay,
California,
Unknown (44:31):
check that listeners next in two weeks, ladies and
gentlemen, two weeks.
Tim Montague (44:37):
Okay, all right.
So anyway, so when you have highpenetration of renewables,
sometimes the utility has toomuch of a good thing and they
have to curtail, yes, andthey're just, I mean, there's a
variety of ways of doing this.
Sometimes they just run theelectricity into the ground. So.
(45:00):
Sometimes they just technically,that's not what occurs
John Weaver (45:02):
throttling the inverter, but that's actually
technically what happens is theinverter throttles the solar
panel. It causes that coollittle curve to run a little bit
off, and so the efficiency ofthe solar panel adjusts. So
that's technically where it'sgoing to occur. Is the they tell
the inverter you need tocurtail, and the inverter tells
the solar panels to run at aslightly different PowerPoint.
Tim Montague (45:25):
And what about any What about with wind?
John Weaver (45:29):
Oh, with wind? I Oh wind. Haha, wind, they will
slightly turn the turbine awayfrom the the wind, or they will
feather the blades. And when youfeather the blades, because
those blades aren't solidchunks, they actually have
little turning abilities. Sowhen you turn, you're slowing
the turbine down, essentially,yes, sir, yes.
Unknown (45:54):
Cool. Well,
Tim Montague (45:56):
we should let our listeners know, by the way,
yeah. Well, let's
John Weaver (45:59):
talk about Rick.
Rick is today having 410 kWFranklin wh batteries added to
his existing 24 KW solar array.
That's awesome, dude. Nice, nicesystem there. Rick,
Tim Montague (46:12):
40 kilowatts of batteries. And that's, that's
what, like 60 kWh, that's a lotof batteries. Looks like Rick
Hannah is going to be completelyoff grid after this
installation. He's getting,well,
John Weaver (46:30):
he's not taking a risk, and this is what a lot of
people are going to do. Man,price of electricity is going to
go up. Your household price isgoing to go up. Somebody in
Missouri is going to see theirbill go up 30% if they were
asked me, I would tell them tocall Rick say, you know, here's
how you fix it, buddy.
Tim Montague (46:47):
Did he say what market he's in?
John Weaver (46:50):
Well, I bet we could go on LinkedIn and find
out, because he's following oneof us, Rick Hannah. LinkedIn,
oh, man, there's like 100 link.
Rick Hannah's on LinkedIn,sorry, Rick, you're gonna have
to tell us
Tim Montague (47:05):
all right, so check out all of our content at
clean power hour.com, follow uson YouTube, give us a rating and
review and reach out to me onLinkedIn. How can our listeners
find you? Mr. John Weaver,
John Weaver (47:20):
LinkedIn and blue sky and my website, commercial
solar guy.com um, I'm on bluesky bunch. Not on Twitter, so
much. LinkedIn, lots and, uh,commercial solar guy.com we got
phone numbers emails. You caneven come visit our office if
you want. I'll give you a coffeeand some tea, and we have a
(47:43):
wonderful conversation aboutsolar.
Tim Montague (47:45):
All right. With that, I'll say, thanks so much
for being here all of ourlisteners, and let's grow solar
and storage. We'll see you in acouple weeks. You.
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